Turkey’s cartographic history on display at museum

Turkey’s most prestigious cartographic museum is continuing to provide a fascinating look on the past with its trove of maps from Turkey and around the world.

Operated within the body of the Defense Ministry’s General Command of Cartography, the Cartography Museum is home to maps from various periods and regions, as well as measuring and plotting apparatuses.

The most comprehensive museum in its field in Turkey, the Cartography Museum displays 559 artifacts as well as the personal belongings and works of Lt.-Gen. Mehmet Şevki Ölçer, the teacher of Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and the founder of General Command of Cartography.

Hand-made relief maps, which are considered the first examples in the world and were made with sea sand, resin, wood and similar materials in the 1880s and 1890s, are among the most valuable artifacts in the museum.

Relief maps made by Military Academy teachers and students in various sizes show the critical regions of the era such as Edirne, Thessaloniki, Ruse, Preveza, Crete and Rhodes. 

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